A lawsuit filed against the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District was recently rejected on appeal by an Alameda County Appeals Court.
The lawsuit was brought by Yang Ti and her husband, Pat Diao, against BART arising out of injuries that Ti sustained on a BART train. Ti was injured when the doors of the train closed on her as she attempted to board.
A trial court found that Ti failed to present sufficient evidence that the train operator was negligent or that the condition of the train doors constituted a "dangerous condition of public property that presented a substantial risk of injury to BART passengers."
BART was able to show that the closing pressure of BART train doors was consistent with national standards and other transit agencies around the country. BART trains have a closing pressure of 15 pounds to a maximum of 30 pounds, and the BART train door incident rate is about one in 4.67 million.
Ti also claimed that unlike on other trains, the operator did not look out of the train to see whether passengers were attempting to enter the train late. Ti claimed that she looked around for the train operator upon getting stuck in the doors, but this contradicted her prior testimony that she was unable to see the front of the train when she was caught in the door.
Ti's argument may have supported a lawsuit based on premises liability, but the appeals court found that it was insufficient to support a lawsuit based on vicarious liability for the train conductor's conduct.
The Dolan Law Firm handles personal injury cases in San Francisco and throughout the Bay Area. If you or a loved one has been injured in an accident, call us at 888-545-9519.
Case: Ti v. San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, 2014 WL 844886, March 05, 2014